Boss Rush

Sorry this took so long, I lost earlier copies and had to rewrite the whole chapter from memory. Please also support my other fic, Ancient Sunshine!

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XXXVIII: Dark Cure

Rowena was walking by the streets of Neo Domino. In this area, the Daimon Area thinned out to other areas, and crime was not really rampant as much as cautious of the limits set by the Arcadia Movement nearby. Shimotsuki Setsuka had a way with a citizen's force that meant that gangs found it easier to take their business elsewhere.

"Damn," she grumbled. "Having no inspiration sucks. Should I go for a drink... where? The Ace of Spades-" she cut off as a wave passed. "What was that?"

There was a sound, a cry. It was short and high-pitched, loud enough to make the windows quiver. Nothing anything like it had been heard before by the playwright-actress. An instant later, every light in sight blew out in a shower of sparks, and darkness swallowed several city blocks.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Rowena backed up at the sounds of things hitting a hard surface on blunt impact, along with... squealing?

Thump. Thump. Thump.

She was hallucinating, that Rowena had no doubt. The flares of St Elmo's fire that lit the way-

Thump. Thump.

Sweat trickled off her brow.

Thump. Thump.

How long more? The suspense would kill her faster than anything else...

Thump. Thump.

"This is just getting ridiculous now," Rowena commented, her voice wavering only slightly.

Thump. Thump.

Before she caved in, a D-Wheel sped past, and a warm breeze blew as a red and gold D-Wheel skidded past, followed by a warrior in blue and gold armour. As rider and walker crossed each other, Rowena's breath caught in her throat as she glimpsed cobalt eyes through the visor of the rider's red-streaked helmet.

That moment passed quickly, before the D-Wheel's wheels skidded and rider and monster made a turn, leaving Rowena staring behind at it.

"Fudo... Ryuusei...?" she mouthed.

That cry was a statement. The hunt was on.

At the same time, in an alleyway just off the Daimon Area, powers played against one another, though the exact nature of its conflict could not be determined. Energies wound about one another, subtle pressures of darkness and light, leaving the field vaguely lit in squares of cold and warm colour.

"W- Who are you?" Erika's voice sounded small in the rush of the wave of conflagration that came from the phoenix that loomed behind her.

"G- Good question," Chase's teeth chattered from cold as frigid blue and purple and greenish power spread like crystals of ice, with the slow and relentless power of a glacier around him and the dragon. "You too?"

"I don't want this!" Erika began to sob as gold flames raged against blue wisps of mist. "I... I..."

You wanted vengeance! The howl echoed about the alleyway the two Duelists faced in. So you shall have it, and I my price!

"Ryuuga is dead!" Erika screamed. "Our deal is over!"

Kyothys, eh? The dragon laughed. The Fowl of Summer rages still, I see.

Dreigoon? the phoenix acknowledged. I see you finally found a host. Good, let us continue where we left off... at the great wars of Summer and Winter.

That war is over, Kyothys. You should have sensed it.

Indeed? The war might be over, but here we still stand. Well, Hound of Winter, will you clash swords? Or will you slink away into the night like the defeated mutt you are?

I'm a dragon, you overcooked chicken.

"Okay, bizarre as this whole situation is, can you both shut up and explain why we're dragged out here?" Chase interrupted them with the confidence and tiredness expected either from someone with zero self-preservation, or a smart-ass.

Dreigoon and Kyothys subsided as Erika choked back a laugh. I see your hosts is proving relatively more stubborn. How strange, for that of cruel and merciless Winter. I would have expected that you would have already broken your host in.

The young are fearless, Dreigoon quietly defended. But aside from that, I presume that you were called for another reason, since I was not aware of your presence in this realm, and you were likewise unaware of mine.

Oh? Oh, yes... we, the Kings of Nothingness, were called.

"Thank you for coming," a voice spoke amongst the flickering shadows and the golden conflagration as a man stepped out. That lazy gentleman had almond-shaped red eyes, glowing like two setting suns. His luxurious cropped hair was the colour of milk chocolate. Short and with a masculine build, his skin was pale as milk. He had a weak chin. His wardrobe was professional, if slightly damp, with a lot of black and brown.

Behind him, a large, titanic monster loomed. It vaguely resembled a gorilla, like of a more humanoid shape, and electricity crackled about the creature that stood beside him as overhead, thunder rumbled from the overcast skies of Neo Domino.

Silently, all three humans glanced at one another.

"Good evening," the man coughed to begin. "I am Fumizuki Hakuro. As you can tell, I am like you, one of the hosts to one of the three Kings of Nothingness."

Zerashii, eh? The dragon scoffed.

What a bad taste, Kyothys the phoenix agreed. And yet...

"And yet you answered my summons, Dragon and Phoenix," Hakuro frowned at the two others. "My apologies for this lateness, but the nature of my proposal is something... discreet. You are aware of the conflict of spirits between two alliances, formally known as Winter and Summer, am I right?"

Silence answered.

"No matter," Hakuro nodded as the air seemed to shimmer with a wave of his arm.

Kyothys screeched. W- What is this horrid magic? Unhand us!

"Mound of the Bound Creator," Hakuro clarified as chains leapt from the ground to bind onto the beasts. "I understand that once upon a time this very card was used to restrain a copy of the Winged Dragon of Ra. It would be necessary for a time."

"What are you...?" Chase shivered. "Huh? The cold... it's gone..."

"The fire... it's fading," Erika stated, also in wonder.

"You have been enslaved by them for a while, I see," Hakuro observed. Beside him, Zerashii did nothing. "The Field Magic, Mound of the God-bindings. Only creatures level ten or above would be affected by its magic. Allow me to formally introduce myself. I am Fumizuki Hakuro, a small-time businessman, and also someone of power, I suppose. I know of you, Satonaka Erika, Chase Princeton."

"Oh, you do," Chase sourly interjected.

"How would you like to be free?" Hakuro proposed. "Free of spiritual interference, free of these two cancerous interferences that rule your lives for a contract that you do not wish for. I can give you that. With this Field Magic, even beasts like Dreigoon and Kyothys must obey you, the commander of their bonds. In exchange, help me, to free humanity from this horrible cycle of abuse and being played by the spirits."

"End the cycle...? Free...?" Erika pronounced quietly.

Chase's lips thinned. Free, free of being frozen over half the night and evasive looks from classmates. Free of the cranky, tiresome dragon and the freezing, cold power that came in the card he never asked for, that had baited and hounded when he answered that there was nothing that Dreigoon could tempt him with.

A memory stirred. You could accept my power... Come, you have no choice if you wish to live.

One way or another, I will die.

Hardly. I would prefer you live, you see. I still have... ideas, as it were.

You... what do you want?

In exchange? A bond to the living world. There is such a thing that many would kill for.

I accept.

Excellent... Ensuing darkness, before ice-fire razed.

Nearly a year already, and he was still here and sane, even with his odd family inheritance of spirit sight. One way or another, spirit and human had worked to something similar to a truce, if not full-on armistice. For all his threats, sadistic predilections and pronouncement not to care about his life, Chase really suspected that the crabby spirit was satisfied on some level.

Overhead, Dreigoon grunted in pain.

Then, there was the guy. Whoever he was, Fumizuki Hakuro just set his teeth on edge, something far more insidious than Shimotsuki. At the very least, Shimotsuki was blunt about her manipulation attempts, and they usually resembled a glacier; he knew it was coming somewhere even if it was going unstoppably.

Well, at least we know there isn't any racial bias in your consideration, the dragon snapped.

"You've been picking up on snark from me, haven't you?" Chase pointed out.

...I am not human. Your human mannerisms are not something that can be applied to a creature as long-lived as myself... no matter how entertaining. Moments of silence. And you have a quaint way of focusing on the subject at hand.

By Erika, Kyothys actually gave a chirrup, like a particularly irritated pigeon.

"I tore open barriers between worlds so that you'd see clearer," Hakuro idly commented. "Let the spirits fight each other. All the more, they won't notice if we were to mount an attack. Each side would blame the other, and Summer and Winter would continue to fight... and we would take the chance. We would rally forces to fight them. With both of you, and the power of the three here, we will succeed.

A voice, a very deep, resonant voice, said, "So you are the one."

It loomed, the warrior's feet breaking the concrete floor underneath as he landed. Blue-and-gold armour glimmered in the dying gold and blue light, and the sabre and shield glimmered in their respective hands.

Beside it, the D-Wheel crashed. Casually, with practised ease and the fearlessness of not being confronted with three titanic, solid beings from the darkest parts of the shadows, or perhaps ignoring their very presence, the rider took his helmet off the reveal the features of Fudo Ryuusei.

The Chaos Soldier's presence earned hisses, growls and caws from the three great monsters.

"W- Who are you?" Hakuro demanded.

Armour creaked slightly as the Chaos Soldier loomed. "One who has served the rulers of the spirits for many centuries. And one who will continue to do so."

"My quarrel is not with you, Chaos Soldier," Hakuro answered loudly, and yet his voice trembled. "Go. Leave. Zerashii."

The titan loomed, lightning crackling overhead from its power.

"My quarrel is not with thee, elder one," the Chaos Soldier whispered, his voice resonant and huge. "Leave us."

It answered with a howl.

"Be that as it may," the huge voice said, gently and with respect, "I also have a duty. We need not be at odds this night. Depart in peace, elder one, with he who commands you."

Zerashii snarled again in that foreign tongue.

The deep voice hardened. "I seek no quarrel with thee, or thy master, elder one of the white void. Pray, do not mistake peaceful intention for weakness. Begone."

It seemed to have a really limited vocabulary when it came to repartee. It howled again. Its claws dig and rip at the ground as it hurtled forward to clash with the sabre of the Envoy of the Beginning, before it was beaten back and then, the sabre shone with light-

It disappeared. Without a sound, without a sight, one moment it was there, and the next it was not.

Hakuro laughed as behind Ryuusei, a monster loomed.

"Ryuusei!" Chase yelled as the Three-Headed Geedo struck.

There was a flash of gold-green light, like sunlight reflected from fresh spring grass, and a detonation in the air, a sound not quite a crack of thunder, not quite an explosion of fire. It was not even loud so much as it was pervasive, something felt along the whole surface of my body as much as on eardrums.

The Three Headed Geedo landed on the ground, about twenty feet away from the Black Luster Soldier. Enormous sections were missing from the front of the greenish-black gorilla-like body, including its thighs and most of the front half of its torso, plus one whole head. It was no messy wound, either; the empty chunks were limned with a chartreuse luminescence that seemed to prevent any bleeding. Even as they watched in shock, it quivered once, and then went limp.

Tiny sprouts of green flowered up from the fallen corpse over the course of a couple of seconds, leaves spreading, then budding out into wild-flowers in a riot of colours. The coating of flowering plants seemed to devour the body of the monster, modestly shrouded in a veil of flowers. It was thoroughly dead, its eyes glassy, empty, and there were flowers growing in a hole where a heart would have been in a human body.

Chase swallowed. It was one thing to know academically that your friend had botanokinesis, the ability to control plants. It was quite another to actually see that he could make plants grow inside to grow over the bodies of fallen.

There was a deep, resonant sigh. "I could have handled it, Your Majesty."

"It was faster like this, Mythran," was Ryuusei's answer. Sky-blue eyes flecked with green were clear as the red-fringed man stared at Hakuro, his expression never wavering from quiet determination. "Chase, you're here."

"Uh," the brunet wordlessly grunted. "What's with the... Chaos Soldier?"

"Long story," Ryuusei casually answered, his eyes never leaving Hakuro. "So you're the one who let them loose in the city?"

Hakuro growled, baring his even white teeth. "Who are you, bastard? Why do you have the Envoys with you?"

"My parents were married," Ryuusei flippantly replied. "And do you need to know who am I?"

Felicitations to the King of Land and Light, Kyothys rasped. May your reign last many more years.

"I've only just figured it out," Ryuusei bluntly answered as he reached for his side to draw a card. "A classic, this card. Cyclone!"

Winds howled, tugging at his bangs and his clothes, as the chains shattered and the beasts howled their liberty as rain began to patter about.

Hakuro began to slowly back away from him. "W- Who are you?"

"I am known as Regulus in the Arcadia Movement," Ryuusei gave him a glance, his expression heartbreaking in its sadness. "I regret what I must do, but it is a necessity. Mythran... take him."

"N- No," Hakuro hissed as he began to flat-out run as the warrior, the dragon and the phoenix began to turn on him.

I shall take satisfaction from him, King Summer, Kyothys chirped as Erika shakily leaned by the side, her body shaking.

"Chase him to the ends of the earth if needed," Ryuusei's voice was implacable as the two boys watched the warrior go after Hakuro.

"No... no more killing..." Tears dripped down Erika's face.

A scuffle was heard, before Rowena ran into the scene. "What the hell?"

"Rowena... Rowena!" Erika burst into tears. "Help me! Please!"

Rex Atlas knew most of the streets of Neo Domino by memory. His Mother being a reporter and his Father a D-Wheeler by trade, meant that he also knew every short-cut possible by a D-Wheel, which also meant quite a few illegal ones. More than once, the mini Jack Atlas had been dragged to Central, only to be released quickly by a blushing Commissioner Sagiri with little more than a slap on the wrist.

He would readily admit that maybe, the Commissioner might have been rather biased, but then, he still got away with knowing most of Neo Domino's little shortcuts.

Now, he was searching through the Cubic Area, just bordering the Daimon Area when the rain had begun to fall. Even though his jacket kept the worst of the rain off, Rex was still muttering invectives about bad weather and unexpected storms.

He heard panting, and thumping footsteps before a man in a sodden brown and black suit ran out of the shadows, just skidding to a halt a few metres away from him to glance at the D-Wheel.

"Help me!" the man shouted as thumping footsteps echoed.

Rex could only blink as from behind, the shadow of the Black Luster Soldier leapt, sabre ready to swing down... and somehow, something told him that that monster was certainly not a hologram.

"What's wrong?" a pleasant voice like poisoned honey drifted. "You don't look so good."

"Y- You..." Hakuro hissed as the black-uniformed schoolgirl, her dark hair in a long scorpion braid and her blue eyes glittering. "S- Shimotsuki Setsuka..."

"Would you like help?" It was a perfectly sincere request, Rex could tell, but something was off about it.

"And end up trapped in the Movement building?" Hakuro gave a harsh laugh. "I'm not an idiot, girl. That power... that blood-ridden power..."

"Games, you mean?" she smiled. "You gamble quite a bit, Fumizuki Hakuro-san."

"A shame," a gleaming blade, serrated for hunting, appeared in his hand. "I'll just have to get your blood."

"Also, I think we've had quite a few misconceptions," the girl interrupted. "Since when did I say that I was Shimotsuki Setsuka?"

"...what?"

Frost gathered and winds howled as the Chaos Soldier leapt and a shining sword of light appeared in her hand, as the two blades cut at Hakuro. The Chaos Soldier's sabre managed to find Hakuro's vital spot, striking quickly before the girl's flashing blade could reach at it.

"To try and continue the wars between spirits is a most despicable act," the Chaos Soldier rumbled. "You have no concept of what is at stake."

"I just... I just wanted to live without it," Hakuro murmured sadly. "These cursed eyes robbed me of a life... Diana..."

"Just because you can see spirits doesn't mean that you need involve yourself into that world," footsteps echoed as the real Setsuka strolled up to check. "He still has a pulse. Our ride will be arriving shortly."

Rex blinked. "There are two of you?"

"Don't be an idiot," the first girl snorted as she undid her braid, her dark locks fluttering out behind her to reveal Michiru.

"How do you say it...?" Setsuka mused. "In the dark all cats are black. In the dark, one black-clothed girl with black braided hair looks very much like another. Although, Michiru, that was a killing strike."

"The Arcadia Movement gave me two ways to use this weapon," Michiru absently licked the blood off her blade before it shimmered into nothingness. "I'm just putting what I know into practice."

Rex felt sick. "You mean, you would've...?"

Michiru turned the full force of her glare upon him. "Suck it up, Atlas. He attacked me first."

"Much as I would love to stay and debate, Rex Atlas, I would have to move him," Setsuka murmured quietly as a black car wheeled up and an albino boy stepped out of it. "Good timing, Justin."

The boy's eyes travelled from the regal girl to the unconscious man to the monster, and stopped on the monster. "The stars proclaim that he will die tonight."

"I'm... not going..." the man coughed, now barely awake.

"I applaud your determination, but I fear that Justin's assessment is quite correct," Setsuka noted. "It comes for you, as my mother came for that which you owed her."

Hakuro's hate-filled gaze transferred to her. "We are watching you. You walk in shadows and one day you will slip and fall. And we will bring you down to us."

"One day," Setsuka quietly agreed. "But not today. Not tomorrow. But one day, in the long future, when I have forgotten you, and you will merely be one face amongst many."

In that final second, rage and horrified realisation condensed, flashing through his eyes. There was a flare of ugly energies, a flash of unholy purplish light around him, and he spoke words that rang in echoes out of proportion to their volume. "Die alone."

Bone snapped.

"Well, that was quite the mood-killer," Setsuka remarked. "Come along now. We've got two Duelists to pick up."

The last of dinner came out into the toilet bowl, but Ryuusei just stared blankly into the messy, watery contents before he clicked the flush. Rinsing his hands and mouth out at the sink, there was a pause as he regarded the door, currently his only barrier between the outside world and the relatively clean washroom.

By the side, the shadow of Marguerite hovered. "You are not well."

"I just killed something," he mumbled. "No one's going to be well after that."

"It would not be the first time something had died by your hand, Ryuusei," Marguerite murmured. "Nor will it be the last. You have carried out these... things for the Cold Queen, facilitated them. You have complicity."

Ryuusei chose not to answer.

"Not to mention, the others that you have unwittingly killed in your wake," Marguerite continued.

"I haven't done that!" Ryuusei retaliated.

Marguerite's eyes looked sad. "You will."

Ryuusei just sighed as he got out, into the relatively clean apartment Erika seemed to share with her team-mate Rowena. How the two had been dragged into this place, Ryuusei still did not want to know. It was fairly comfortable, if slightly run-down, with an air of second-hand that indicated that this was a fairly well-worn apartment. Even in a growing city like Neo Domino, the price would have been enough to warrant a few flat-mates, Ryuusei guessed.

"What was that about?" a quiet voice demanded. He looked at the asker, Rowena, and Chase and Erika huddled in separate piles on the chaise lounge. The brunet looked awkwardly pale, paler than normal, while quiet tears still rolled down Erika's cheeks.

"I'm... not too sure," Ryuusei confessed. "Chase?"

"Rei woke me up, dragged me to a slug-fest with that woman's phoenix," Chase grumbled. "Can we go now?"

"Erika?" Rowena turned to the woman.

"I... that monster..." Erika hung her head. "I... I didn't know about Ryuuga... I wanted to know. Then, that... that monster gave me an offer. I would give it a link, and that monster... that monster would destroy whatever made Ryuuga the way he was. I... I didn't want to kill anyone, honest..."

"That's bad," Marguerite whispered quietly. "Things given by right of bargain cannot be exchanged."

"You knew what was going on," Rowena turned onto Ryuusei, her expression fierce. "I saw you, with that Chaos Soldier. That... that wasn't just a hologram, was it?"

"...no," Ryuusei quietly answered.

Chase looked up. "That was the real Envoy of the Beginning?"

"Yeah," Ryuusei flatly replied.

"And you commanded it," Rowena's expression turned into flat defiance. "It went after that guy."

"...do you believe in spirits?" Ryuusei posed.

"I... don't know," Rowena confirmed. "What, you're a medium or something? 'Cause I don't think a medium could make that mess. A Psychic Duelist, maybe, but are you claiming to be a medium?"

"Then it doesn't matter," Ryuusei responded before Chase could open his mouth as a polite knock came upon the door.

Rowena frowned as she went to the entrance. "Who is it at this time of the- Shimotsuki-san?"

"Good evening, Rowena Cortez," the melodiously cold voice of Shimotsuki Setsuka drifted in. "I believe you have two agents of the Movement in your apartment, Cortez-san. Please, allow us to take them back to their homes."

"Shimotsuki?" both of them stood up, moving to the door where Rowena was arguing with the calm girl past a chained door.

"You owe me a few answers!" Rowena slammed the door open, the chains jangling in silent invitation as Ryuusei and Chase got their shoes and stepped out. "Now tell me, what was that crazy thing?"

Setsuka regarded the older caramel-haired woman with amusement, Ryuusei hanging back only slightly. "There is a price for such knowledge. Perhaps you should begin by asking your friend why she had made such an unwise deal with things she does not know."

Behind Rowena, the sounds of Erika crying echoed louder.

"Don't screw with me!" Rowena defended. "You have the answers, don't you?"

"But, the costs of such an answer outweighs the benefits of giving them," Setsuka evenly replied. "Come, Ryuusei."

"You owe me them!" Rowena shouted.

"I owe you nothing, Rowena Cortez, and it is you who owe me everything, including how to control your power to slip in and out of minds," Setsuka evenly pointed out. "You left the Arcadia Movement, and you are paying back your loans. It is in fact, you who owe me. Do not meddle in affairs that do not concern you."

The two psychics left, leaving the woman steaming behind.

"Is that a good idea?" Ryuusei pressed Setsuka as they went out. Chase was well enough to ride, and Rex was there as well with a pale-faced Youkai, riding pillion behind Chase and waiting for Ryuusei.

"Satonaka Erika deserved everything coming for her, making such an open-ended deal with spirits," Setsuka murmured.

"Isn't there... any way we could help her?" Ryuusei asked.

"If it were any other spirit, trading a baby would be the standard clause," Ryuusei paused to stare at her answer. "However, the spirit in question has no need for one."

"I... see..." Ryuusei deflated. "And the man?"

It was Setsuka's turn to pause in her tracks, as Michiru exited the car to lead her in. "I have taken the time to explain to him the error of his ways."

The car drove off, leaving Ryuusei distinctly more peeved in her wake.

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